"I Am Glad to Say . . ."

Long overdue was the announcement Sumner Welles made last week: that the U.S. Government would at once call a United Nations conference to study the problem of freedom from want. For his significant speech the Under Secretary of State chose a significant place: Toronto, a center of strong Empire sympathies and a sounding board for U.S., Canadian and British relations.

Sumner Welles had gone to Toronto to get an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Then, to an audience of students and Dominion bigwigs, Sumner Welles delivered the address that reduced months of generalizations to something tangible.

Canada and the U.S., said he, have similar postwar interests in full employment, free, enterprise, a lightening of Government controls, relief of devastated countries, international currency arrangements, better trade.

He went on: "Nothing is more clear to my mind than this: if all aspects of an economic problem were explored, it would become apparent that the basic interests of all countries are largely common interests, that each country's economic problems are related to, and inseparable from, those of the others.

"A United Nations study such as I have in mind would explore in a careful, thorough and systematic way world problems in the economic field, toward the solution of which much progress must be made if we are to have anything approaching the goal of freedom from want in our own countries or elsewhere. . . .

"Failing to begin such organized study and discussion now, there is the danger that divergent views and policies may become crystallized, to the detriment of the common war effort, and to the detriment of efforts to bring about a peace that will be more than a brief and uneasy interlude. . . .

"I am glad to say that my Government intends at once to undertake discussions with other members of the United Nations as to the most practical and effective methods through which these vitally necessary conferences and consultations between us all can be held. It is my conviction that from these meetings a large measure of agreement will already be found to exist."

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